The pond is a little boring in the winter, so after Christmas I went out a bought a few dozen clear, irridescent tree ornaments of assorted sizes, at half price. They float on the water, nearly covering the surface, and shimmer nicely in the sun. This little spider (1, 2, ..., 7, 8 legs - yep, a spider) seems to feel right at home on the surface of the water in the interstices between the baubles. Maybe he/she likes looking at his/her distorted reflection.

The blue-green pot received for Christmas (see previous entry) was slightly chipped, so I mixed up some acrylic paint to a matching color, and then used some glossy acrylic varnish to give it a glazed look. The repair worked well, but there was some blue-green paint and lots of glossy acrylic varnish left over, so it was put to use by making some decorations for the train project. The pieces are made from air-drying clay.

Left: a sea creature, about two inches across, photographed sitting on a mirror.

Right: a garden, with three thingies and a whatsit, about three inches across.

Received for Christmas one blue-green pot and assortment of driftwood. Added soil, pebbles, and four dwarf evergreens from local nursery, where they were sitting outside frozen solid. So far they are doing well and seem to be happy to be indoors.

8:59:01 PM

Saturday, December 11, 2004

It seemed about time for a picture of the "pond" that this site is named after. It's the round area in the upper middle of the picture. I calculate it at about 300 microacres in size. The picture was taken in late August of this past summer. The pond contains dwarf papyrus, dwarf water lily (see a pattern here?), native pitcher plants, water lettuce, and pickerel weed. There are actually a couple goldfish in the pond. Surrounding the pond are coleus (bottom) and sedum (upper left). The big rock to the right of the pond was already there sticking out of the ground next to the deck. It dictated the position of the pond, which was about the first thing I did in the garden after moving in, and the layout of the rest of the garden more-or-less followed from there. If that rock hadn't been there who knows how things might have turned out differently. Thus the pond becomes a metaphor for life, choice, and destiny. Wow.

After much anxiety caused by a harsh winter, a delayed start to the plantingseason, and a record-break cold soggy spring, our Mr Lincoln rose bush hasproduced its first blossom. It's a good one, and well worth the wait!It rained right on cue enabling me to snap this nice inauguration portrait.

Gratuitous flower picture of the day: water forget-me-nots. OK, so I'm a sucker for this kind of stuff and I haven't got an original bone in my body. So sue me.

9:09:24 PM

Sunday, June 08, 2003

A view of the back yard as seen from the side of the house. In bloom, from left to right, of varying visibility: Poppies (yellow), Violets (violet), Dianthus (pink), Bearded Lily (blue), Azalea (pink and red), Water Forget-me-not (light blue), Pitcher Plant (yellow-green), Sweet Woodruff (white), Perrennial Geranium (blue), Scotch Broom (pale yellow).

8:33:27 PM

Saturday, June 07, 2003

This closeup of our Aphrodite azalea makes it clear that azaleas are a type of rhododendron; compare this picture of a rhododendron blossom. (The upside-down orientation of the Azalea blossoms was noted in post-production, too late to correct the problem.)

7:28:58 PM

The azaleas were pretty spectacular this year, although a little late because of the cold spring. Our new azaleas, planted last fall, were particularly late - they didn't start blooming until a couple of weeks ago, and this one only really got going this last week. The lower half, which was buried in a snowdrift much of the winter, started blooming sooner and more profusely than the exposed upper half.

So I decided to try planting some roses this year. Or as my friend Bob the Cynic says, aphid food. I ordered them from David Austin Roses last fall. They didn't ship them until May this year because of our prolonged winter. They where shipped bare root and severly pruned, which means they looked pretty much like sticks when they arrived. But wonder of wonders they actually grew, and this little bud arrived just the other day. Fingers are tightly crossed.

11:20:58 PM

Sunday, June 01, 2003

Here are some pictures of the pitchers taken last fall shortly after they were planted. Click on the thumbnail to see the big pitcher - err, picture. The pitchers are actually leaves, and the pitcher plant gets much of its sustenance from photosynthesis, supplementing its diet with bugs. The pitchers mostly died back over the winter, although a few of them survived in part.

9:46:10 PM

The big green pitcher plant has a flower. At least that's what I think it is, although I can't quite see how it works. It's about two inches long.

The smaller red pitcher plant also has some flowers underway, although they don't seem to be quite as far along. They're about half an inch in diameter.